During my Saturday morning surfing, I came upon these three sites:

http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

http://www.nikinielsen.com/bio.html

http://www.areyoumywife.blogspot.com/

These sites have really got me thinking about my dreams.  I have tended to do one thing to the next without much connection between any two points. I have an idle dream of being a writer, but have struggled with finding my writer self over the many long years.

What these websites reminded of is that you have to PURSUE your dreams, not sit idle and WISH your dreams to come true.

No turkey for me today. Being an expat, I haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving in 6 years and it was only reading a post from Raw Dawg that reminded that today is Thanksgiving.

I am about as far away from the Thanksgiving tradition as I can get. I’m away from home, alone, in Scotland having a Chinese buffet for dinner.

I don’t often take the time to reflect on just how far remove from America I am. I no longer have a feel for what is going on in America at the street level and the only news I get is through the British press, which of course has a European slant. I guess I could read the local news on the Internet, but I’m too busy reading all the great blogs out in blogshere to bother.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is what I am thankful for:

– I am thankful for my family and friends
– I am thankful for my health and the health of those close to me
– I am thankful for having a life not full of strife and contention
– I am thankful that I have material comfort
– I am thankful for my spiritual well-being
– I am thankful for being on The Path
– I am thankful for all the cool people I have met through this blog

I am sure there a thousand other things I could give thanks for, but at the risk of boring everyone to death, I’ll stop there.

God Bless and have a great Thanksgiving holiday,

Clay Lowe

“Writers are always watching people. In order to have output, we need to have input.”

I am a tired puppy tonight. And once again, I ate the foulest tasting hamburger in the world. But there you go; at least I had something to eat.

I need to go on a reading sabbatical. I started Ken Wilber’s One Taste and within the first few pages I had a long list of philosophers, thinkers, scientists, poets, psychoanalysts, and writers whose work I feel compelled to find and explore. The list includes:

Kant
Hegel
Spinoza
Marx
Fichte
Freud
Nietzsche
Einstein
Schopenhauer
Leibniz
Aldous Huxley
Thomas Mann
Christopher Isherwood
Gerald Heard
Krishnamuriti

I better get started then…

A quick commercial for a really cool event we’re running in December. If you’re in the area, please do come along. I promise it will be fun, informative, and full of magical moments.

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How can an evening’s learning be so much fun and still be life changing? How can you learn some tools and techniques in just 3 hours that will enable you to achieve your goals, manage how you feel and respond to situations and improve the quality of your personal and professional relationships?

How would you like to learn the techniques used by people like Paul McKenna & Derren Brown?

Well, the simple answer is to come along to Trinity College in Leamington Spa on December 7th and find out.

We’re launching a brand new course through Trinity College in NLP – Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It’s an approach to developing personal performance, based on understanding and changing our mental processes and view of the world.

Just imagine – if you could develop better relationships, communicate even more effectively and realise your wildest dreams, what would that mean to you, and to the people close to you?

To give you a unique opportunity to find out more we’re running a taster evening. There’s no cost, and it’s the perfect time to see NLP in action, discover how it works for you, take away some powerful tools that you can use right away and meet the training team. You can ask questions, make friends, chat, relax, be entertained and of course learn skills that have the potential to change the course of your life.

The course itself comprises 12 evenings, and if you want to take it further, a 4 day certification module.

All you have to do now is use the form above or call Sarah Bartlett at Trinity College on 01926 428416 to secure your place.

Labels. Labels. Labels.

We have this innate need to label things. I realise labelling is a part of our survival mechanism. Back in the day running around in the jungle, we needed to label things, good, bad, dangerous, poisonous, friend or foe.

And the labels were signals to the brain to act accordingly in relationship to the label.

So if I stumbled upon another human in the jungle, I might label the person friend and go up and hug the person and exchange juicy gossip about what so and so was caught doing in the village.

If I labeled the person foe then my brain would either give me the signal to fight or flee. This same functionality is still with us today.

Soren Kierkegaard turned us on to the problem with labels: once you label me, you negate me. This equally applies to how we label ourselves. I often struggle with how to label myself for other people. Am I a writer, coach, trainer, philosopher, or consultant?

We tend to answer the question ‘what do you do?’ by saying what we are. The dialogue goes like this:

“So what do you do?�

“I am a writer…�

When in fact I should answer the question by saying “I write.�

Now if the person asks me ‘who are you?’ I answer with my name. ‘I am Clay.’ And ‘what do you do Clay?’

I am a:

a writer

a coach

a trainer

I run my own business

In fact labels can be changed and interchanged depending on what you need to use the label to do.

Writer is a label that is useful for me.

Philosopher is a label that is useful for me.

Thinker is a label that is useful for me.

Coach is a label that is useful for me.

Training Consultant is a label that is useful for me.

In a world that wasn’t obsessed with labels, I would be happy to just say “I AM.”

Instant happiness is

FORGET the past; FUCK the future, BE here now!

(early morning insight while lying in my hotel bed)

Work life balance is a myth. To be balanced is to be mediocre. Even Jesus eluded to this in the Book of Revelations: ‘…you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other. So, because you are lukewarm I am about to spit you out of my mouth.’ What I have noticed is in my attempt to lead a balanced life, I have become Joe Average. When my life was unbalanced and chaotic, I constantly pushed the limits of how far I could go. I spent a lot of time on the edge in danger of falling off. The edge is intoxicating because you learn things about yourself you might never have had the opportunity to learn in ordinary circumstances.

My life is less chaotic now, more stable and balanced. But balance, as I have seen it, has brought boredom, frustration and a little irritation. I feel like the caged bird. Only I don’t feel much like singing. I feel like ripping the fucking cage up and beginning again.

Life coaches would have you balance the Wheel of Life. Knowing what I know now, I would say scrap that, choose what most appeals to you and then pour all of your energy into the pursuit if that one area.

The map is not the territory. If you have the territory, why would you need a map? A map presupposes a destination, an endpoint to obtain, a goal. If I sent you an email that read, “Meet me in Wales next Thursday at 10:02am as a matter of urgency. By the way, after I send this message, you won’t be able to contact me further.”

If you know where Wales is, you could make a start but the chances are you wouldn’t find me next Thursday. In fact, it would probably take you a lifetime to find me there without more specific information.

If I said meet me at the very top of Snowdon at 10:02 next Thursday, you would be able to find me if 1) you have an accurate map of Snowdon in your mind, i.e. you have been there many times before and have an accurate memory of the territory, or 2) you have the necessary physical maps you would need to get you to the top of Snowdon from where ever you are right now, or 3) you know someone who knows how to get to Snowdon or could ask someone who knows.

The ‘map’ is a guide to the territory. If you don’t have any particular place to get to within the territory, do you need a map? Any direction you choose is as good as any other. As the Cheshire Cat famously illustrated when Alice asked the question: “Would you tell me please which way I ought to go form here?”

“That depends a great deal on where you want to get to,” replied the Cheshire Cat.

“I don’t much care where,” said Alice.

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.

I have been looking for maps to help guide me through my life. Which presupposes I have somewhere to get to. If that’s the case, where do I want to go? Isn’t BEING here enough?

I was visiting one of my West Point Classmate’s website and found this little gem tuck away on her site.  It’s a video of Cadet Basic Training better known as Beast Barracks.  Brings back some fond memories!
[youtube]RbmRZKIbSRY[/youtube]

The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the source of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand in rapt awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exits, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms, this knowledge, this feeling, is the centre of true experience.

Some of you may recognize these words as those of the preeminent physicist, Albert Einstein. I came across the words while studying some universal laws to which I had know of intellectually but had not put into practice very much. But as I reflect back on the periods in my life when I have had the privilege to tap directly into this source, this magical mystical flow, I realized that these were times when I was at my absolute best. I was firing on all cylinders: mind, body and spirit in tune, in flow and in harmony with everything around me.

Over the past week, I have been drawing a mandala daily as a part of a research project I am doing. The mandala is like a mind mirror in which you can find valuable clues from your subconscious mind. I have an article on mandalas which I’ll make available on the blog later. I also use the mandala as a projective coaching tool on Ascent and recently, I have been running mandala workshops. The workshops have inspired me to start collecting empirical data to be used as the basis of a book on mandalas to support my workshops. If you are interested in participating as a subject, post a comment or send me an email.

Ah the joys of coming home and the anticipation of sleeping in my own rack.  I had a late flight in from Scotland.  I used BMI Baby instead of Fly “May” BE.  The BMI Baby crew actually seem to have pride in their company and treat their customers with a little dignity and respect and on top of that, the plane got us to Birmingham 20 minutes early!  Well it’s late and I’m up early tomorrow for pretty much an all day meeting followed by another engagement in the evening.  Time for some much needed shut eye.

Question number 53 is courtesy of those funky business boys.  The Nobel Prize winning Mr. Henry Kissinger is reputed to have started a press conference with the question: ‘Does anyone have any questions for my answers?’  Which reminds me of the poster of a monkey scratching his head underneath a caption that said, “just when I thought I had all of life’s answers, they changed the questions.”

The barista in training told me there were several good places to eat in Stirling. I told him I would be here for several weeks which would give me plenty of time to try them all. I told him tonight though, I want a burger.

“Where can I go to get a good burger?” I implored.

“Ah that’ll be The Filling Station just down the way. They make an awesome burger.” I finished my coffee and dashed back to my hotel to pick up my copy of funky business forever. I thought Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom might make good dinner companions.

The Flagship Golden Lion Hotel is my home for the next three days. From the moment I walked into the lobby, I didn’t like the place. My dislike grew when I walked into the closet they were calling my room and I absolutely went through the roof when I found out they didn’t have WiFi. According to the welcome pack, “Unfortunately we don’t have Internet access in our hotel but the central library in the city centre is the perfect place to go. They have free Internet access Monday to Saturday from 9.30 am until 6.00 pm.” That would be fine I suppose If I were here as a tourist, but not so good if you’re on business. Not to worries though, this would be my big chance to try out the Vodafone mobile WiFi unit I bought a few weeks ago. I knew it would come in handy sooner or later.

I wander into The Filling Station and ask the lone waitress for a table for one. The place is decked out in old filling station paraphernalia – old Shell and Esson petrol cans, rusty bumpers and old street signs. I immediately spot the spicy hot wings and the Bison burger with bacon and mozzarella cheese.

While I’m waiting for my bison burger, Ridderstrale and Nordstrom tell me that “markets are simply big conversations where sellers and buyers exchange information to determine the price of something.” Radical thinking? Or how about, “America’s success lies in its ability to mop up the greatest talent. The brightest minds from China, India, Russia and Brazil and elsewhere flock to the US. Why? Because the US is an idea not a country.”

The spicy hot wings were sweat on the brow, nose dripping, mouth burning hot! And I would have to say they are the best hot wings I have had in the UK. They are a close second to the world famous Jay’s Elbow Room hot wings. The Bison burger, on the other hand, is a disappointment. I had dreams of it being as good as the bison burger I ever had down on South St in Philadelphia. The bun let the bison burger down. The bun is just as important as the burger. They are a team. In this case, the bun failed to enhance the overall experience of the burger and I left wishing I had just order two or three servings of the hot wings.

I pretty much had a quiet day.  I read An Enchanted Life until mid-afternoon, cooked myself a late spaghetti lunch and then watched the two episodes of Heroes that have been waiting for me to watch them.  The rest of the eveing I spent on packing for my trip to Scotland tomorrow, plus a few odds and ends.

Here are some of the photos I took in Oxford yesterday.  Oh, the reason I was in Oxford was to meet a friend whom I’d not seen for a few months.  He lives in London.  We chose Oxford as a sort of midpoint between us.  I decided to take the train so I could spend some time reading Don Juan:  A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.  This is my second reading, but it’s appropriate for the project I’m working on at the moment.

I have an oh-dark-thirty morning tomorrow so I’ll post these photos and call it a night:

Overheard while riding the train from Reading to Leamington Spa:

(girl on mobile)

“I was stressed.”

(pause)

“I wasn’t angry.”

(pause)

“Let me finish.”

“You know you drive me insane.”

(pause)

“Oh…now I know why I’m not with you anymore.”

“You can be the nastiest person in the world.”

Earlier in the week I watched 28 Weeks Later, which is the sequel to 28 Days Later. The original story in 28 Days Later is about a genetic experiment gone wrong. A group of animal rights activists break into a research facility to liberate the monkeys who are being subjected to animal testing. The scientist on duty begs them not to release an infected monkey, but they do anyway. Shit happens. 28 Days later all of the UK is destroyed. The blood from the test monkey turns people into extremely violent man eating killers.

OK. So that sounds like some far-fetched sci-fi stuff. Perhaps it’s not as implausible as it sounds.

Scientists at the Case Western Reserve University at Cleveland in Ohio have released their study of the super mouse they created 4 years ago. The super mouse has extraordinary physical abilities. It can run up 3.7 miles at a speed of 20 meters per minute for five hours or more without stopping, which according to the scientists is equivalent to a man cycling at speed up an alpine mountain without a break.

The super mouse eats up to 60 percent more food than an ordinary mouse, but does not put on weight. It also live longer and enjoys an active sex life (I think they threw this last bit in so men won’t be afraid they’ll become impotent if and when they start injecting this stuff into people). There are now 500 of these super mice.

What’s the connection with 28 Days Later?

Well here’s the kicker: Professor Richard Hanson said that these mice “are metabolically similar to Lance Armstrong biking up the Pyrenees. They utilize mainly fatty acids and produce very little lactic acid. They are not eating or drinking and yet they can run for four or five hours. They are 10 times more active than ordinary mice, and they live longer. in short, they are remarkable animals.”

And the downside?

According to Professor Hanson, “They are very aggressive. Why this is the case, we are not really sure.” Professor Hanson swears they have no intention to try this experiment on humans. That would be unethical he says. However, he does intent to release the findings over to pharmaceutical companies who might want to develop drugs (like we need another drug) that enhances muscle performance. And yes, he admits, it is possible for athletes to misuse any future drug developed in this way.

NaBloPoMo hugh??!!?  Crazy name but great idea.  Tomorrow is the official start of National Blog Posting Month.  The bloggers who have signed up have made a pact to blog every day during November. It’s a great way for bloggers to exercise their blogging muscles and get into the habit of posting on a regular basis.  Unless you are a professional blogger or a massive procrastinator, blogging everyday can be a challenge to fit in amongst the gazillion other things going in our busy lives.  Now is the chance to bend the rest of our lives around blogging.
You can find me here on NaBloPoMo.  I’m also a member of the read. write. poem. forum.

Sean had a nice radio spot this after on BBC CWR to promote our short film Wildfire (which I hope you have had a chance to view and vote for). You can listen to Sean’s interview here:

P.S. I haven’t quite mastered embedding podcast with wordpress, hence the hastily created podbean site to host the podcast of the show.

Enjoy (and vote)

3 weeks ago we made a short film, called Wildfire, for the Daily Telegraph/Ford Mondeo Short Film Challenge. There is £10,000 at stake, so we really, really need your votes. You must act quickly because the voting is only open for 2 weeks starting yesterday. Of course there is something in it for you too. When you register to vote you are automatically eligible to win a £2,000 home cinema system.

You can see the film by visiting http://fordfilmchallenge.telegraph.co.uk/site/ select the “View Entries� tab and select “Wildfire�, which is directed by our good friend Maxim Jago.

Please vote as soon as you can (and tell all your friends too).

Every now and then I browse the magazine racks to see if something catches my eye.  Today they fell upon the latest issue of the Avengers United.  Flicking through the pages sent me back in time.  I was twelve years old again sitting in my room wishing I could have a superpower. I never could decide whether I wanted to be super strong, super fast, or just plain cool like Spiderman.